Companies from across the world have raised more than $1.8 billion this year to date via ICOs, which involve the sale of a newly minted crypto coin based on Ethereum to finance the development of a product. The space is not regulated like mainstream financial markets and that has attracted widespread criticism for its potential to deceive investors, who are not required to be accredited in any way.

"Raising funds through ICOs seem to be on the rise globally, and our assessment is that ICOs are increasing in South Korea as well," Reuters reports that the Korea's Financial Services Commission (FSC) as said following a meeting with the Bank of Korea and the National Tax Service.

Regulations imposed in China in recent times have led to Korea representing an increasing portion of global cryptocurrency trading. China's share is thought to have dropped from more than 90 percent in previous years to just over 10 percent today with Korea, Japan and the U.S. emerging as new trading hubs.

Given Korea's importance, today's news sent the price of bitcoin down three percent in the last 24 hours. The value of Ethereum is down 6.5 percent.